


Reality and Artiface

by Elsinore_and_Inverness



Category: Bella and the Boys (2004), Takin' Over the Asylum
Genre: Acting, Alternate Universe - Theatre, Bipolar Disorder, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Sunburn, The Tempest (William Shakespeare), The perils of stage lighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 15:12:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12135177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsinore_and_Inverness/pseuds/Elsinore_and_Inverness
Summary: Campbell gets carried away putting up stage lights for an outdoor production of the Tempest, misses rehearsal and gets badly sunburnt. Bella is playing Miranda and she tries to help him with his lines.





	Reality and Artiface

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this at the beginning of the summer after doing the first light hang for a travelling production of Hamlet on a blisteringly hot day

Bella knocked on the door of Campbell’s dressing room. ‘Can I come in?’

‘If you do nae mind seein’ me shirtless and sunburnt.’

She turned the door handle. 'Why weren’t you in rehearsal and- Oh. Ow. How did that happen?’

Campbell’s back had taken on a reddish pink hue and was haphazardly smeared with some kind of green goo. His face was also burnt across his nose and cheeks, his freckles seeming somehow darker in contrast with the stiff shiny pink.

'There was a call for a light hang at the outdoor stage.’

'A light hang?’ Bella frowned in confusion.

'You know, where they want people to, you know, hang up lights? It’s really fascinating- Did you know this production uses five different types of lighting? And when you factor in the different wattages, and angles and aperture- Love that word- aperture- And I did something really clever with the gaff tape, based on the principle of tension that allows me to rotate the-’ he was talking increasingly rapidly, his words seeming to run over themselves in a flood of enthusiasm.

'Campbell,’ Bella interrupted cautiously, 'you’re an actor. You’re supposed to go to rehearsal. A call for a light hang doesn’t mean you.’

But Campbell wasn’t listening, too caught up in his account of working with stage lighting. 'And there are these amber gels that look amazing- And we’ve got two different shades of blue for the shadows and underwater stuff- They’re really interesting because they go diagonally- And they let me climb up into the towers to tie the cables- You know how they never let us go up into the catwalk?’

'Because there’s no reason for us to be up there?’

'Well, the towers are even better because you can see from horizon to horizon and-’

'And get sunburned?’ 

'That’s not the point. But you would have loved it, Bella. It’s like being on a tall ship.’

'I don’t think I’m supposed to have much of an affinity for tall ships for the next twelve weeks.’

'Right. Cuz you’re Miranda. Mir-an-da. The magician’s daughter. Oh brave new world!

'Cam, you’re supposed to go to rehearsal and learn YOUR lines. They weren’t joking when they said that if you weren’t off-book by tech week-’

'I know- I know- Ow.’ He had reached his arms above his head, a frenetic, nervous motion that stretched the sunburnt skin across his shoulders.

'Why don’t you come over to our room- We’ve got a couch, I can get some cool paper towels and-’

'The women’s dressing room?’

'No one’s changing. What’s all this green stuff anyway?’

'Aloe vera. From the plant in the green room. Let it not be said that Campbell Bain is not resourceful!’

'Mmm-hmm. I’m getting some paper towels, okay?’ 

In a matter of minutes Campbell was lying on the couch in the room across the hall, paper towels soaked in water draped across his back.  
'It stings. Is it supposed to do that?’

'I don’t know.’

'It’s not blistering?’

'No. But it’s hot- like, thermally-’

'Obviously.’

'Stay still.’

'I need to learn my lines.’ Campbell tilted his chin up to look at her awkwardly from his low vantage point lying across the couch.

'You have to lie still. Where’s your script?’

'I lost it.’

'You lost it?’

'Yeah. Do you have yours?’

'It’s at home.’

'Who keeps their script at home? Why would you do that?’

'I’ve been off-book.’

'No one keeps their script at home just because they’re off-book!’

Bella seemed rather taken aback by this shrill declaration, especially coming from someone who had evidently lost their script entirely 'It keeps me from using it as a crutch.’

'It’s not a crutch. It’s a checking off point- It’s- Where do you write your notes?’

'I just change the way I’m doing the scene and remember the way it feels.’

'What?’

'I try to keep in as fluid and un-pinned down as possible, so it seems natural. In-the-moment. Unconstrained.’

'How-’ Campbell shook his head. He couldn’t even remember his lines, much less engage in a discussion of degrees of realism and artifice.

'Do you know your first line? Prospero’s just put the spell on me so I fall asleep-’ Bella promptly collapsed onto the floor and Campbell nearly stood up in alarm.

'That’s your cue,’ she whispered, curled up on the floor of the dressing room. 'You walk on stage and give your first line.’

Campbell tried to focus. He was a spirit of light and air, greeting a magician to whose service he had been bound for a decade and a half. Miles away from a silly boy of flesh and blood, burnt from pretending to be a lighting technician. He was greeting Prospero. He closed his eyes.

'All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail! I come to answer to thy best pleasure; Be it to fly to swim, to dive into the fire, to ride on the curled clouds thy strong bidding task Ariel and all his quality.’

Bella peered up at him from the floor. 'You’ve got to say the words with your eyes open. And you can’t be afraid of the words. Ariel’s being a bit sardonic, that should come across when you-’

'No he’s not.’

'What?’

'Ariel’s being sincere. He would do all of those things. He sincere and he’s scared. Scared of the power of words. He wants tae be asked, nae to be ordered. He wants to give rather than to serve. His obsequiousness isn’t rooted in bitterness. Quite the contrary.’

'Oh.’ Bella bit her lip. Campbell’s Ariel might not be the Ariel the director wanted, but she could see there was something deeper at work than a couple lines of text.

'Should still probably have my eyes open though.’

'Probably. And then Prospero asks if you’ve made the tempest.’

'I have to the- to my- to the-’ he closed his eyes again. 'I cannae- sorry- I can’t remember.’

'It’s okay.’ Bella unfolded herself and stood up, brushing the dust and scraps of thread that littered the floor and clung to everything off her jeans.

'They’ll have to find a replacement. And they’ll only have tech week to learn their lines. I had three weeks and I couldn’t do it. It’s not fair to anyone and it’s my fault. I should never have been cast.’

'Don’t say that. You know Ariel, you understand Ariel.’

'But I do nae know the lines of Ariel! Scores of other people could have been brilliant… Instead you just have me mucking about for a fortnight and a half- And they’ll have to reshoot the promotional photos, and who knows how much that’s going to cost…’

'But you did all the brilliant stuff with the lights. If they thought you were good at that-’

'I probably mislabeled the circuits and they’ll have to redo everything anyway.’ Campbell pushed himself up onto his forearms, the now-warm waterlogged paper towels beginning an incremental descent down his sunburnt back.

'Don’t sit up- You’ll-’

'Mess something else up? Won’t be the first time.’

'Hey. Don’t be like that.’

'Would that I could… When they fire me can you have them say it was over “artistic differences of opinion”?’

'You’re not giving up?’

'Giving up is easier than failing.’

'Nothing wrong with failing.’

'Isn’t there?’


End file.
